Erosion Project

The golf course will be closed on Monday, June 4 and Tuesday, June 5 for aerification. With some timely showers and good growing conditions, many of the newly sodded areas have rooted well. If you have been around the golf course over the last couple of days you have probably noticed that we have taken some of the ropes out and have opened some areas for play. We hope to be able to open up more areas over the weekend and into early next week. There are, however, some spots that will still take a bit more time. These areas…

The golf course has come a long way in the last couple of weeks. We are finally getting some pretty consistent growing temperatures. Greens, tees, fairways and roughs are all starting to green up and we are starting to ramp up course playability for the season. All of the big construction areas have now been sodded. As seen below the 14th hole was the last one to be done. As the sod matures over the next couple of weeks, there will be many newly sodded areas. We ask that you please be careful not to drive through any of these…

The short game area will open for the season on Saturday, May 12, and open at 7:30am on weekdays and 6:30am on weekends. The 7:30am start during the week will help our team coordinate the required maintenance on the short game area in a more effective and safe manner. So far, this spring has been interesting, to say the least. Between the construction, the ice storm, and two wind storms, there has been a lot going on around the property. The wind storm last week took down several trees and another one fell yesterday on the 2nd hole. Overall, the…

What a fantastic opening few days. It was great to see many of you out here enjoying the nice, sunny days on Tuesday and Wednesday. The golf course itself is progressing each day, and we hope it will be a nice weekend for the Ladies' and Men’s opening events. With the late start to the season, we are playing catch up on many of our maintenance practices, but our crew has been working very hard to tidy up the property and have the golf course playing well. Over the last week, we have filled many divots on the golf course,…

The golf course will open for the season on Tuesday, May 1 Course Opening Our team has been hard at work preparing the golf course for the start of season. The greens get better each day. We cut them for the second time today, and with another few good days of growth, they will be ready to go. The short game area is fantastic to practice those shots that will take many strokes off your game. Being that it’s a relatively small practice area and gets a lot of play, it’s important to keep it closed until we have good…

It is still too early to forecast a course opening date. With some encouraging weather coming our way, we will have a much better idea of where we stand by early next week. Below are photos that show a comparison between April 19 of last year (one day before course opening) and this year. At the moment we are several days behind last year’s conditions. This week has been a challenging week. In preparation for the start of the season, our "TO-DO LIST" is quite long and it has been difficult to sit back and wait for the snow to…

With the Masters behind us, I know we are all getting amped up and excited for the season. However, the weather hasn’t let up, and we still haven’t seen any turf growth. It is still too early to forecast when the course will be ready for opening. It is very much weather dependent. Our bentgrass greens have proven yet again that they overwinter very well, even under harsh winter weather. Part of the reason why bentgrass is so resilient is because it goes through a lengthy physiological preparation in the fall. Call it hibernation for grass (turf dormancy). Bentgrass is much more…

Golf Course Another week has gone by, and we still haven’t received any decent weather to initiate turf growth. We are hoping that after the cold temperatures expected over the weekend, the weather will take a turn for the better. Wednesday afternoon we experienced severe wind gusts throughout the city that left thousands without power. The golf course held up well through the storm. We lost one big spruce tree by the 5th green (see photo) and a smaller spruce tree by the 4th green. Otherwise, the damage was limited to branches and small debris. Project Update Early in the week, the drainage and…

The work continues to progress well on the Erosion Project. Fieldstone installation along the creek bank is almost complete, along with the rough grading of the new green site. We will welcome back KCM, the company that performed the greens rebuild in 2014, to construct the new 18th green complex in late March or early April, depending on the weather. The work remains on schedule and is really starting to take shape.

As we close in on the end of February, I thought this would be a good opportunity to give everyone an update on the golf course and the status of both ongoing construction projects. Both construction projects are going well and are progressing as scheduled. To date, we have been fortunate with the weather as we haven’t run into any significant delays. With record-breaking high temperatures on Tuesday and significant rain throughout the early part of this week, the golf course has gone from being completely snow covered to no snow at all. A big rain event and snow melt…

Islington Golf Club

Conveniently located in Toronto and tucked into historical Islington Village and the Mimico Creek valley, Islington Golf Club is a challenging 18-hole, par 72 golf course with tree-lined, parkland-style golf holes, rolling terrain, and the meandering Mimico Creek. Visit our website at www.islingtongolfclub.com.